Gee…I sure am happy with my new cordless lawn mower, it works great! Now that I have my garden ready for plants I need to go and find some plants to plant. I think I’ll plant starts this year and maybe try starting from seed next year. Between the weather and the time it took clearing a garden area, which was a lot of work this year, but should be a lot easier next year. It looks to me we will still come out ahead $$$money wise and health wise buying starter plants this year.

Yes, today is the first day of summer and the longest day of sunlight for those in the northern hemisphere. I just love it. Every thing is green and blooming again. The birds are out and cheerfully eating as many bugs as they can…go birds!

I was informed by my youngest, that they ate the last organic gala apple and that I needed to go buy more. Well, we went to the store today and began to pick out a good bag of organic apples, but then noticed the price had jumped from $4 something to $7 something and the apples looked a little under the weather. While I was looking at the apples they were drooling over organic strawberries…they were $7 almost $8.00 for one container. Ouch…no strawberries today either. I think we need to plant apples trees and grow some strawberries.

Tree

Wow! This weather has been crazy!

Yesterday it was sooo nice out, it felt like summer. Then today, the temp. dropped, thunder storms off and on, and rain, rain, rain!

I like rain when its drizzling and its warm outside and nicer weather, but when its gray sky and raining a storm outside….  I don’t like that much. It makes me sleepy and want to stay under the blankets all day.

Tree

Wow! The best buy ever, our new electric lawn mower has arrived, and it is cordless! It starts right up without any hassle and mows great. It sounds like a big hair drier…sooo quiet, I like that a lot. I also like the fact that I don’t have to buy gas to mow my lawn, what a plus that it is right now.

Tree

I know many people have heard of Burts Bee’s, but others haven’t.

Burt’s Bees first started out in 1984, in Main, selling candles made out of beeswax. Look how far they’ve come!

Today, they manufacture products in categories that include, face care, body care, hair care, lip care, men’s grooming, baby care and outdoor remedies, all natural. They have big plans for some more new natural hair care and skin care products! They just keep on buzzin’.

Their products are carried in nearly 30,000 retail outlets, including major grocery and drug store chains in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

They remain committed to the environment with recycled and recyclable packaging and nature-safe manufacturing processes, and are continuing the land preservation efforts they started in Maine.

They believe that in order to take from nature, we must protect and provide for nature.

I was looking online for some new make-up that was healthy for my skin and ran across a few websites.

www.lavera.com and
www.bareescentuals.com looked like a couple of the good ones…

Lavera provides 100% natural cosmetics that have been proven effectiveness and is big mostly in Europe.
But don’t worry! They are spreading to the U.S. and you can go online to look for different products!

Lavera uses plant based liposomes for repair effects and hyaluronic acid for moisturizing sensitive skin. They have even won awards for their Lipgloss, Family Sun Spray SPF 15, Kids Sun Block Spray SPF 25, and other cosmetics!  They sell organic hair products, bath products, skin products, make-up, Anti-aging cream/ moisturizer, and they even have products for men and babies!

BareEscentuals has many organic and natural cosmetics. They also provide BareMinerals, which sells some of there products on T.V.

BareMinerals products are 100% mineral, unlike Lavera’s plant based products, and leaves your skin looking a natural luminosity. It is free of preservatives, talc, oil, fragrance and other harmful chemicals, and provides coverage for every skin type, skin tone, and concern.

Their make-up line also offers complete color treatments and cosmetics such as lip glosses, eyeliners, mascaras, lip colors, lip liners, flawless application brushes, skin preps and more!

Amazing… But those are only two companies, when I find more I will let you know!

It took awhile for the grass to turn green after the long winter white…sooo glad the white is gone. I really like green! It did not take long for the nice green grass to grow and then begin to seed. The dandelions grow even faster than the grass, and so many tall yellow flowers in such a short amount of time. I kind of like the added cheerful color, but there are those who say “wow you sure have a lot of weeds…better weed and feed real soon”.

I don’t like the idea of spraying or spreading a chemical soup on my lawn, actually I have never used it before. A friend told me their sister found and uses a organic weed and feed, but does not remember what it is called. I hope to find out the name of it soon. I did do a search online for organic weed killers and found one which sounded pretty good. I plan to do a little more research to maybe find on more cost effective.

I went and bought a reel mower thinking great no need for gas, oil, cords and it is very quiet. I ran across one problem with the reel mower, the dandelions and some of the grass was just too tall for the reel mower to cut. It cuts great but left some taller stuff standing.

Then I went back online to look for electric lawn mowers, and now have a cordless electric lawn mower on order. I can’t wait to see how it works. But, the lawn is not going to stop growing and wait for the new mower. So, for now I mowed the lawn, weeds and all with a friend’s gas mower which ran great, but was very smelly, noisy, and took two tanks of gas.

Don’t you love the sight of wonderful vegetables growing in a garden?

I do!!!

And the best way to organically do that, is to create a compost pile. All ya gotta do is get a wooden crate (or another something as long as it’s biodegradable) and put stuff in it! WOO HOO!!!

Okay. Not true.

Well, the part about the crate is true, at least.

But it’s not all pies and cakes when it comes to compost piles.

• You CANNOT put ANY metal or plastic in the compost piles
• You CANNOT put cooked fruits or veggies in them
• You MUST stir the compost every once in awhile or it will stink (because you must remember that it is made up of rotting food)
• ONLY put fruits, vegetables, or peelings in the compost piles
• DON’T be afraid if there are little worms in the compost, they help turn it into soil

All of this pays off, because the rotting food turns into some of the most wonderfully rich soil. Perfect for gardens and lawns!

lindycat